مروری بر پراکندگی اشیاء سفالی معروف به گوپال در فلات ایران

کرانه‌ها و پس‌کرانه‌های پهنۀ دریای پارس بخش بزرگی از جنوب ایران است که درطول تاریخ موردتوجه بوده و استقرار‌های بسیاری در این بخش از ایران شکل گرفته است. موقعیت و شرایط جغرافیایی نقش مهم و تعیین‌کننده‌ای در شکل‌دادن تجارت، اقتصاد و اوضاع اجتماعی دریای پارس داشته است. این دریای نیم‌بسته ازنظر وضع طبیعی و اقتصادی و موقعیت نظامی و سیاسی دارای ارزش به‌سزایی است؛ همان‌طورکه حیات اقتصادی و اجتماعی بین‌النهرین به دو شاهرگ آبی آن، یعنی دجله و فرات وابسته است و همان‌گونه که رود نیل نقش اصلی و کلیدی را در تاریخ مصر بازی می‌کند، به‌همان نسبت دریای پارس را می‌توان گلوگاه مهم و حیاتی تاریخ و تمدن و اقتصاد ایران دانست. این دریای کوچک و زرخیز در طول هزاران سال هم‌چون سفره‌ای پر نعمت آغوش خود را بر ایرانیان و دیگر ملل مجاور باز کرده تا ساکنان سواحل آن، از ذخایر متنوع و گوناگونش بهره‌مند شوند. پژوهش حاضر به معرفی اشیاء سفالی که به گوپال مشهورند و بیشتر در نیمۀ جنوبی ایران، به‌ویژه در کرانه‌ها و پس‌کرانه‌های دریای پارس به‌وفور یافت می‌شوند، پرداخته است. علت نام‌گذاری این اشیاء سفالی دقیقاً مشخص نیست. نمونه‌های اولیۀ اشیاء مذکور از بوشهر و خوزستان گزارش شده است. طی مطالعات حاضر در کرانه‌ها و پس‌کرانه‌های شمالی دریای پارس تعداد بسیاری از این اشیاء مورد شناسایی قرار گرفته است. در این پژوهش جهت گردآوری اطلاعات از دو روش کتابخانه‌ای و بازدید میدانی از برخی محوطه‌های حوزۀ موردمطالعه استفاده شده است. پرسش‌های اصلی پژوهش حاضر عبارتنداز: گوپال‌ها به چه بازۀ زمانی قابل تاریخ‌گذاری هستند؟ کاربرد گوپال‌ چیست؟ پراکنش گوپال‌ها در چه مناطقی است؟ علاوه‌بر معرفی گوپال‌ها و بررسی ویژگی فنی آن‌ها دربارۀ کاربرد و تاریخ‌گذاری نسبی این اشیاء بحث‌شده و نقشۀ پراکنش این اشیاء در فلات ایران ارائه شده است. 

a review on the distribution of clay objects known as gopal in the plateau of iran

the beaches and hinterland of the persian gulf are a large part of southern iran, which has been of interest throughout history, and many settlements have been formed in thispart of iran. this semi-closed sea has a great value in terms of natural and economic situation and military and political situation just as the economic and social life of mesopotamia depends on its two waterways, the tigris and the euphrates, and just as the nile river plays the main and key role in the history of egypt, in the same way the persian sea can be considered an important and vital bottleneck of history and civilization and iran’s economy. over thousands of years, this azure and fertile sea has opened its arms to   iranians and other neighboring nations like a table full of blessings, so that the residents of its shores can benefit from its diverse reserves. the present research has focused on the introduction of pottery objects known as gopal, which are found in abundance in the southern part of iran, especially in the beaches and hinterland of the persian gulf. in this research, two library methods and field visits to some areas of the studied area have been used to collect information. the main questions of the present research are: to what period of time can the gopals be dated? what is the use of gopal? in what areas are the gopals distributed? in addition to introducing gopals and examining their technical features, the use and relative dating of these objects are discussed and the distribution map of these objects in the plateau of iran is presented.keywords: gopal, persian gulf, iranian plateau, khuzestan, bushehr, hormozgan.introductionas a historical and strategic waterway, the persian gulf has always been the focus of rulers and throughout history, it has been the place of passage for the ships of eastern and western civilizations. the coast of the pars gulf is a suitable habitat for the settlement and establishment of human societies. in recent years, as a result of the archaeological surveys of the beaches and hinterland of the pars gulf, many prehistoric, historical and islamic sites and hills have been identified. among these, a number of ancient sites and mounds of clay objects have been found, which are called gopal. the present research has studied these objects that are scattered on the banks and back banks of pars gulf.research questions: in this research, the most important questions include: 1- in what regions is the range of distribution of clay objects known as gopal? 2- are gopals produced in the northern part of the persian sea? 3- do these objects have different types in terms of appearance? 4- gopals belong to what period of time? 5- what is the use of gopal?gopal classificationclay objects known as gopal are clay cylinders whose height varies between 15 and 30 cm and their weight varies between 1 and 4 kg. the upper part of the gopals is round with a diameter of 10 to 17 cm and the lower part is saucer-shaped with a diameter of 6 to 12 cm. their floor is rough and uneven, but they are stable to be on the ground. williamson has introduced the gopals with the title of base and divided them into four categories, gavbandi type, bushehr type, ganaveh type and tepe yahya type (williamson 1972: 100). according to technical specifications and appearance, gopals were classified into 9 types. but since this study is mostly in the form of a library and the distribution area of gopals has not been fully investigated in the field, it is possible that there are more and different species that are hidden from the authors of this study.distribution of gopal in the persian gulfthe basis of the study of the distribution of gopals is the study of survey reports, records and field studies (table 1) that have been published and published so far, as well as the authors’ visits to a number of sites on the beaches and hinterland of the pars sea. the distribution map presented in this research is the beginning of a way to carry out additional studies in the field of these clay objects in the future and undoubtedly has some shortcomings (map 1). the distribution of this pottery was in the beaches and hinterland of the persian gulf as louis pelly says: they are found along the coast (pelly 1863-1864: 44). hertzfeld he writes: “along the shore, under the ruins of early islamic houses, large quantities of clay handles are found, which are called gopals, and are introduced as flakhen, (herzfeld 1926: 260).the most distribution of gopal in behbahan city is in zidon section. the gopal area in the south of omidieh belongs to the middle islamic centuries, of this gopal as “clay base” (sadeghi rad 2018).in bushehr province, the distribution of these pottery objects increases significantly and they are found in abundance in almost all of the province. gopals of different types have been reported from the grounds of sarkho castle, shahzadeh mohammad darvishi in shanbeh and tasuj sections of dashti city (zarei 2018: 143).in the north-west of fars province, two samples were introduced from tell ahangaran and tell khazaneh in noorabad mamsani in the study of askari chavardi, the first sample is gopal made of stone. in the west of fars, in the area of fathabad in sarmashed of kazeroon city, in the research of parsa ghasemi, broken samples of gopal clay were reported, which are “scattered in the plowed lands” (ghasemi 2010: 327-327).  in the southern part of fars province, the distribution of gopals is more and these objects have been reported from six sites. golrokh hill is located in chahorz district, lamard city, (askari chavardi, amiri: 2002) a small round base was found on the surface of tape yahya, probably from the second period (achaemenid period). this type, which is scattered throughout the jiroft region, can be easily distinguished from the 3d type, and it may be considered the background of the sassanid foundations.” (williamson 1972: 100) and in the southern part of the persian sea, he refers to al-ain in abu dhabi, where bushehr-type clay foundations are scattered there (ibid.).examples similar to gopalin terms of the overall shape and appearance of the gopals, there are similarities with objects such as decorative studs obtained from chaghazanbil, and probably those who consider these objects to be architectural decorations because of the similarity between there were gopals and studs (figure 13).the example of a fire pit (figure 14) which mustafavi believes is related to the seleucid period (mustafavi 1968: 71) or the base of fire pits made of stone or plaster from weigal (javari and bagh-sheikhi 2019), plang-gard (alibeigi 2012: 201), shian (moradi 2009), bandian derghez (rahbar: 2008), imamzadeh mohammad (askari chavardi 2010), tell shahid, keshto village and brazjan (tawfiqian 2017) and the images of firetemple on the coins of sasanian kings. , have general similarities with gopal (figure 14).williamson introduces a type of wooden bases that are painted and were used for bushheri or kuwaiti boxes, and these clay bases are the background of wooden bases (williamson 1972).a type of tallow burners that became very popular in the islamic period (wilkinson 1973) are examples similar to gopal. two stone objects have been found from imamzade abdullah in shushtar, which ahmad eghtari refers to as fire pits or the base of fire pits belonging to the parthian period. he classified them except gopal (eghtari 1996: 703-702). (figure 15). unglazed candlesticks with a similar design have also been found in merv (wilkinson 1973: 314) (figure 15).